A few months back, while visiting our Oakbrook store, I met a customer named Roslyn. She’d come into the store to ask me some advice on mixing wood finishes in her son’s bedroom. After we got to talking, I offered to design a room for her youngest son, Cole, who’d be transitioning into a big boy bed soon.

Roslyn already had some of the core pieces for the room, but wasn’t sure how to pull it all together. She knew she wanted a subtle nautical theme. She also wanted pieces that could grow with her son, something we hear often from our customers. And, something we think about carefully in the design of each of our products. Here’s the Pinterest board I put together for the room, http://pinterest.com/bynodforyou/cole-s-big-boy-room/. 

I added in the nautical touches, stuck with a limited color palette that was present in the rest of her home, and pushed it just a little modern by adding in the metallic rock lamp.

Roslyn was over the moon about the design, but after more chatting, I just wanted to do something more. So, I offered to visit her home and put it all together for her. Last Friday afternoon, along with our Managing Director Michelle, we went to Roslyn’s house and staged our own room makeover “show” replete with big reveal and all! And, we had a blast. Here’s what we did.

The room was a pretty blank slate to start. It’s a small space, so we tried the bed in several positions. We opted for this to maximize open floor space. At just 18 month old, Cole will want a lot of open space to play. Also, by pushing the bed against the wall, that’s one less direction the little guy might roll out of bed!

Once we determined a floor plan, we got busy unboxing, assembling and ironing all the products for the room. 

Then we got to setting up the space. Since the room wasn’t huge, we needed things to do double-duty. We positioned the 6-cube bookcase next to the bed to act as both nightstand and toy storage.

We planned out a gallery wall using Nod pieces and items that Roslyn already had in her home. We did a little rummaging in the other rooms of the house. Here’s a little tip, shop in your own house first. That wall art you’re no longer loving in your family room, may be perfect for your kid’s space. 

Then we hung, re-hung and re-hung the Nautical Flag banners. That’s the thing about putting together rooms, no matter how much you plan, sometimes you just need to try something to see if it works. Don’t be discouraged if your first attempt doesn’t work. 

Then, I gave everyone a little lesson on how to stuff a duvet cover. Here’s the trick.

1. Turn the duvet cover inside out.
2. Put your arms inside and grab onto the top corners.
3. Pick up the duvet insert, also at the corners.
4. And, flip! Voila! Now your duvet is stuffed and you don’t need a nap from wrestling with your bedding!

Then, we were ready for the big reveal.

Here’s how it turned out.

If you need any design advice or would like us to work on a custom mood board for you, just drop me a note danielle.kurtz@Landofnod.com. We’d be happy to help.

 By Danielle Kurtz

Danielle is the Creative Director at Nod and an over-protective mother of two. She’s also completely obsessed with Pinterest, Twitter and her Kindle, but not necessarily in that order. Danielle loves to craft, sew and crochet, but all her supplies have a layer of dust on them about 5-years-thick, wonder if it's just a coincidence that her oldest kiddo is 5 years old?